Walking With The Walkers
by Daffodil3126
Summary: H is a walker, but she's different. She doesn't eat humans...often. So when she meets a certain Dixon brother things get complicated and she realizes that she is keeping a secret that could turn everyone against her just after she had gotten them over the fact that she is one of the undead. (Crossover of The Walking Dead and Warm Bodies.)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters. All I own Are the characters I creatively insert into The Walking Dead.

**Walking With the Walkers**

**Ch.1: Awkward Introduction**

I'm dead. I'd like to say that it's really not so bad, but it is. You would think the dead can't feel pain, but we can. The burning fever that killed us remains after we regenerate. It's always there shooting like lava through my spine where it erupts into my brain. Pain, pain, pain, always in pain. It's why we look so sad and mean.

After life has been kind to me. Well, better than it's been to some. I didn't die from being eaten on or bitten. I died from a normal flue that could have been cured with simple antibiotics, but we didn't have access to any. So unlike my fellow roamers I have very little blood on me, no gruesome wounds, and no spilling guts. I think if my hair was a little neater and I didn't stink that I could pass as a human who was simply having a bad year. I don't know why, but how I died was really the only thing from my former life that stuck with me.

I don't remember my name, my family or even how long ago it was that I died. I think my name started with an H but there's no way to be sure. I try to guess who I used to be, what I used to do, how old I am, stuff like that, but nothing ever feels right. Sometimes I just stare at myself in a store window or whatever reflective surface is near me. My gray sweat pants are stained and dirty from the rain and weather. The black Aerospatiale tank top I'm wearing is missing a strap and the hem is unraveling.

My wardrobe tells me nothing of my past life. My best guess would be that my parents were wealthy and I was a stuck up preppy chick. My red hair is longer than it used to be and I've gotten twigs stuck in it from roaming through the woods looking for food. The fact that my hair is still growing coupled with the fact that we are still walking and vocalizing makes me think we aren't really one hundred percent gone.

Sometimes when I'm just wondering around I'll end up at a house. It's your typical white farm house. White, no shutters, two stories, with a red roof and a covered front porch that goes across the whole front of the house. Totally normal other than the layer of mold growing all over it. It's almost in the middle of nowhere and there's a random lone stretch of fence out front. I never go in. I'm afraid of what I'll find. It could be my house, and my family inside or it could just be a family that has been eaten so bad that they didn't come back. You see if a walker eats the human's brain they don't come back as one of us. But we only get the brain on rare occasions. Our teeth aren't strong enough to tear though the human skull. So we only get the brains if the human has suffered some weird death that cracks their skull enough for us to get through. So I just stare at the house wondering why my feet always take me to it.

I don't know if I'm the only one that can choose where I go and where I don't. When a human comes around the others go running to them, but I can choose to stay behind. I know I'm not like the others. They let their hunger guide them and it usually leads them to total death. I choose to satisfy my hunger with animals. Rats, roaches, chipmunks, whatever I can find that is living.

I like to think that I was an animal lover in my past life because when I eat dogs I can't stand it. It does little to ease the pain that is constantly thumping in my head and I just feel worse. I don't want to hurt people. I want to stay behind and out of the way of the bullets that always fly at our heads. I'm not going to lie and say that I have never been shot before, I have and it hurt like a mow foe, but I didn't bleed and it didn't heal. The streak of skin and flesh that was torn off of my arm by a grazing bullet and a bullet hole in my stomach are the only injuries I have.

The others don't like me because I'm different. I have more control over my body than they do. I don't fall into the two categories that I have created for them. The roamers and the lurkers. Pretty self explanatory. The roamers constantly walk around looking for something to sink their teeth into while the lurkers well, they're a little pathetic in my opinion. They just sit around and wait. Wait for the weather to finished rotting them, for a rat to scurry by or on rare occasions for a human to walk by thinking that the lurker is dead. I have to admit that I lived with the lurkers before I realized it was stupid. The humans eventually figured out what the lurkers were doing and started shooting rather they moved or not.

I'd also like to say that I don't ever eat humans, but sometimes the loneliness and the need to feel something other than the constant pain in my spine wins out and I take a life to get the brain. Yes I said that getting the brain was hard, but not for me. I am smart enough that if I really, really want to, I can use tools. I have a big rock that I keep in the pocket of my pants. I use it to get to the brain. I don't like hacking up a human, but brains are my drug and just like any addict I will sometimes do anything to get it.

And like any other drug, eating a brain makes me see things. Memories from the owner of the brain that I know I shouldn't see, but they make me so happy. A kid playing with his dog, a father teaching his son how to shave and his daughter how to dance. These are the things I crave. Moments of life that I know I will never get to experience. But the ones that make me feel human the most are the memories of a husband and wife. Kisses, laughter, love, lust and desire. Those are the feelings I crave most, I think I never fell in love in my past life. If I did, maybe it ended badly. It's just a feeling I have.

I was standing behind the house staring at the back door when I heard someone step out of the brush in front of the house. I sniffed the air. It was a male human. Pain prickled the back of my neck and shot through my spine. It was telling me to eat. To take his life so that I can feel something other than dead for two minutes. But I didn't want to kill him, and I didn't want to get shot either. So when I heard the guy kick in the front door of the house I headed into the brush out back and hid behind a tree hoping that he won't come out there and that I wouldn't be seen and shot.

I looked around me as I wait for him to move on and my eyes landed on a white flower with wide flat petals and a yellow center. Something told me that I knew what it was call before I changed, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't remember. "Sophia!" the man yelled out and the pain in my brain intensified. "Sophia!" '_Are you crazy? Stop yelling'_ I think to myself. When I hear him coming closer I press myself tighter into the tree.

Then I see him, kneeling down looking at the flower that I was looking at earlier. His hair is side swept, his dirty face is crumpled up in thought, and his sleeveless plaid shirt offers little protection from the likes of me. With him so close his scent hit me in the face like a speeding brick wall. An involuntary moan left my lips from the pain and the guys head jerked up. His blue eyes met my cloudy ones.

Before I knew it a crossbow was pointed at my eye. I didn't want to die, but it looked like it was about to happen. So I closed my eyes and turned my head to the side waiting for the blow to come. Who knows maybe God won't hold what I have done against me. Maybe I can still go to heaven. But the bolt never pierced my skull. So I opened my eyes and looked at the man who still held the bolt on my face.

He looked confused and I couldn't figure out why. Then I realized that I should be trying to attack him right now. Any other walker would be. So I just stood there. Not moving, not breathing, and not blinking. While he just stood there and stared at me. I had never spoken before, but I realized that if I could turn my moans into audible words that right now would be the time to do it. "Not…" my vocal chords screamed from being used for something other than a growl and I gripped the bottom of my shirt in an attempt to deal with the agony that being around this man was causing me. "…eat…" the second word was more audible than the first, but it still sounded like a growl. "Not…eat…yyyyou." He dropped his bow in astonishment.

"How…? Walkers don't talk. What are you?" he asked. All I could manage was a stiff shrug. "Whatever, yer still gonna die." He growled as he raised his bow back up and pointed it back at my eye. So I closed my eyes again and turned my head to the side so that I didn't have to see the bolt headed toward me. But the bolt once again didn't come. So I opened my eyes to see the guy once again staring at me. He growled before he dropped the bow. "Fuck it." He huffed out as he turned his back on me, picked the flower and started stalking off.

_'Why didn't he kill me?'_ I asked myself as I still stood with my back against the tree. He could have easily shot me and been done with it, but he didn't. Was it because I wasn't fighting back or was it because I spoke and showed him that I was different? Either way I was grateful.

He gave me one more day of misery and I was somehow thankful for that. Maybe I just thought that I was ready to die for good. Maybe he just made me realize that a half dead wasn't so bad after all…


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter 1.

**Ch.2: We Meet Again**

I had spent the last day and a half just wondering around the woods with no specific mission in mind other than to find something living to ease the pain of hunger. Lately I had been following a river hoping to stumble upon a deer or something big, but it hadn't happened yet. "Sophia!" was I hearing things? That sounded like the guy from the house the other day. "Sophia!" Yep it was definitely him, but what was he still doing out here? I would have thought that after encountering me that he would have ran in the other direction.

His presence peaked my interest so I started following his voice, which had come from somewhere down the river, opposite the direction I had been walking. I had been stumbling toward his voice for a while, taking my own time, when I heard a horse whinny and the wind blew their scents up my nose. The sound was immediately followed by the heavy clopping of the horse running away.

Okay, so something spooked the horse that I'm assuming the man from yesterday was riding. If it was a walker that scared it, maybe I could distract it and help him get to safety. So I quickened my pace. God, why do I have to move so slowly? I can't run, all I can do is shamble along at a pace that might equal the leisurely jog of a normal person.

I had been trying not to breath for fear of smelling the man and having to deal with the pain of hunger, but I needed to smell him in order to pin point his location. So I gave the air a good long sniff. He was closer than I thought, to my right, in the little ravine. Not wanting to be seen, I snuck quietly to the side and peeked over. He was laying at the edge of the water passed out with and arrow in his side. If I were any other walker I would have thrown myself down the ravine and gotten some nasty wounds in an attempt to tear the flesh from his bones. But I'm not any other walker and I was feeling compelled to help him instead of eat him.

How am I supposed to get down there without hurting myself in the process? Wait, what the hell am I thinking? I'm a freakin' walker, the fall isn't going to kill me. At most it will scratch my soft, slowly rotting skin and hurt a little. That, to me, seemed worth it if it meant saving this man. So I stiffly laid down and tucked my arms across my chest before I let myself roll down the hill. I landed in the water, splashing the man in the face when I did. I expected him to spring to life, but he didn't. He just groaned as his eyes opened to little slits. I wanted to crouch over him and try to wake him up, but that would mean getting too close for comfort.

So instead I kicked his foot in hopes of getting him to stir. "Merle." _Who the hell his Merle? Come on man wake up_. I kicked his foot again. "Screw you. …Girl, they lost a little girl." So maybe that was who Sophia is. Maybe he's with a group and he has been looking for a little girl this whole time. "Shut up. I tried like hell to find you bro. You let out. All you had to do was wait. We went back for you." It was clear to me at this point that he was seeing things. He was looking at me, I think, but he was talking to someone only he could see. So I took the dangerous route and dropped to one knee beside him and softly slap his face. Making his head sway from side to side. "I ain't nobody's bitch."

The sigh I released came out as a growl and the sound was mimicked from a fellow walker that emerged from the edge of the foliage behind me. "Get…up." I rasped as I shook the man and he bolted to life. Freaked at my presence he immediately started shambling backwards and kicked me in the face making me fall flat on my back. Before I could get up be had a stick over my face ready to plunge it into my skull. Out of reflex I threw one arm over my face and used my other hand to point at the other walker who was slowly heading our way. "Him." I waveringly grunted out and the man turned to the other walker and took him down with a weak kick and started bashing his head in with the stick held horizontally in his hands.

When the other walker was taken down the man turned to me as I slowly pulled myself from the muddy ground. We stood there for a while just staring at each other. He was taking in my dingy appearance while I took in his sleeveless shirt, dirty face and the bolt protruding from his side. "What… are you?" he asked a bit breathlessly and I just shrugged. I didn't know what exactly I was, so how could I answer him? "What do you want?" his face was hard as stone and I was afraid that if I didn't answer fast he would kill me. So I shook my head from side to side. "So you can understand everything I say." It was more of a statement, but I nodded my head anyway. "And you can talk." He drawled as if he was freaked out and I didn't blame him. I nodded again in confirmation of his statement. "So why ain't cha talkin' now?" he asked and I felt the need to answer his question with words.

"H…Hurts." I grunted and he tiled his head slightly to the side.

"You things feel pain?" he asked and I just nodded. "Good." I didn't like the way his lip curled in disgust, but I couldn't blame him for hating my kind. Hell, I hated my kind. But I was different and I was hoping that he could see that I truly wasn't _that _horrible of a being.

We just stared at each other for a little while longer. My eyes slid down from his face to land on the arrow still sticking out of his side. "Ssshould…pull…out." I rasped with a nod to the bolt. He narrowed his eyes at me as if to tell me that I was overstepping some invisible boundary. I could sense that I was making him uncomfortable and he didn't want to take my advice. So I shrugged and decided to leave him to fend for himself and walked away.

"Where ya think yer goin'?" he asked and I slowly turned to face him. I just shrugged and pointed toward the direction that would get me out of the ravine without having to climb the steep sides. He rolled his eyes and walked to pick up his crossbow.

"Pull… out… Cover hole…lose… llless blood." My throat screamed at me for using so many words at one time, but I feared that if he didn't take my advice and pull the arrow out that he would lose too much blood and not make it back to where ever he had been staying.

"Were you a nurse or somethin'?" he asked. Wanting him to understand that my throat was hurting I pressed my hand to the base my neck and shrugged. "Ya sure seem to know what yer talkin' 'bout." I just rolled my eyes at him and motioned to the bolt in his side. "Alright alright. I'll pull it out, damn."

He was in pain. I could see it in his eyes as he reached around and attempted to pull the arrow out in a way that wouldn't cause more damage. I just watched him for a few seconds as he struggled and unwillingly let out a few pain filled grunts. I couldn't stand to see anyone hurting that much. So I slowly walked to stand behind him. He didn't even notice until I laid my pail hand on his sun kissed one stopping his struggling, but making him jump away from me in the process. "Help….just wanna help." I whispered making talking easier on my throat.

To my surprise, and I think his, he turned back around for me to pull the arrow out. Gently I laid my hand on the shaft and gripped it as tight as my walker fingers would allow, which was pretty tight, and gave it a good, fast yank. He let out a stifled scream before he placed his hands on his knees and breathed hard recovering from what I assumed was some intense pain. At lest he could scream if he wanted to, as far as I knew I couldn't do that.

When he was finally able to pull himself up straight he turned to me and held his hand out for the bolt. I hesitantly held it out to him hoping that he next bits of flesh that it went through wouldn't be mine. After that it was almost like I wasn't even there and for some reason instead of walking off like I was going to earlier, I stuck around and watched him.

Fist he removed his shirt and tied it firmly around his wound. Then he reminded me too much of myself when he cut open a squirrel and proceeded to eat it raw. When he was done with his snack he picked up a doll that had been lying on the ground and stole the shoe lace from the other walkers boot. I didn't understand why he took it until he cut off the dead walkers ears and strung them along the lace. Even then I still didn't understand why he made the necklace, other than maybe he had gone crazy from blood loss if he wasn't crazy before that. The face that he didn't kill me the first time we met made me think that maybe he was crazy before.

He started to head over to the side of the ravine with a makeshift cane in hand. "Where… goin?" I un-femininely grunted and he finally looked at me as if I had been a hallucination before.

"Hell no. I ain't telling' ya where my camp is at so you can come in and murder us all." He said as he turned back to the wall ahead of him.

"Won't murder… Just want… to help." He ignored me and started trying to climb up anyway. "Easier…Way…Up." I growled because him acknowledging the fact that I wasn't completely stupid and then choosing to ignore me was pissing me off for the first time since turned. I just wanted to help the guy and he wasn't accepting it.

My change of tone caught him off guard and he looked down at me with furrowed eyebrows. "How's that?" he asked and I rolled my milky yellow eyes as I pointed down the river. He just shook his head and waited for me to talk.

I sighed and it came out as a growl. "Half mile… Rope ladder." I didn't know how it had gotten there, but I knew that if he was willing to climb a literally slippery slope then he would be willing and able to climb a rope ladder. "Won't follow." I vowed to him and held three of my fingers up in the air as if I was a cub scout and he actually smirked.

"Smart ass." He said under his breath as he turned his back on me and headed stumblingly down the river in the direction I had pointed. That action alone told me that he trusted me to some extent.

I just stood back and watched him disappear down the river. I didn't follow him. I couldn't break my promise like that. Besides I was afraid that if I followed him to his camp that my heightened senses would pick up the scent of every person there and drive me into a feeding frenzy. It sounds stupid, but it had happened in the past when I was freshly turned, or what I call a newborn. So finding out who this man was and where he was staying didn't seem worth it.

I don't regret the decision I made that day to help him and not follow him. Helping him gave me a sense of worth, even if it was just for a little while, I actually seemed to feel something other than just here. Just…being.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** See chapter 1.

**A/N: **Pink skin = not a walker. A normal human being. It just felt cheesy to call them breathers or warm bodies.

**Ch.3: Striking A Deal**

I had spent the whole night just walking with no goal in mind. Just like always time was lost to me. It didn't matter if it was day or night. Instinct told me to keep moving. To keep looking for my next meal regardless of rather the sun was in the sky or not. The transformation that happened after I died must have done something to my eyes, because I could see just as good at night as I could during the day.

When the sun came up I finally stopped walking and looked around to see that I was back at the house. The same house that I almost always ended up at when my roaming mind and legs decided to cease. Looking at it made me think of the man from the previous day and the day before that. Both times he hadn't killed me and both times I was truly grateful. Next time I meet a pink skin I might not be so lucky. So wouldn't it be stupid to waist what time I had left on this earth by just staring at the house because I'm too chicken to go in and see if it could be my house?

Yes, yes it would be. So I walked to the front door and pushed it open. As soon as I stepped in I knew that this was a letdown. There were no pictures hanging on the walls. No personal touches of any kind. In all honesty the house was depressing. There were no signs that there was once life in this place at all. It looked as if it had been abandoned long before us walkers came along. I had high hopes that this place would fill me in on most of my lost memories, but it didn't. I even checked the drawers of the few dressers that were in the house hoping to find even one picture of myself that would tell me who I once was. There was nothing. I couldn't figure it out. Why had I been so drawn to this place if there was nothing here for me?

Well, now that I knew that the inside of the house didn't contain my family, or anyone else's for that matter, I needed a new goal. Something to keep my mind busy. I was sitting on the steps of the back porch when I smelled him. I looked up to see the guy from the days before walk out of the brush. As soon as he saw me he stopped and his hand tightened on his crossbow.

I just watched as he raised it and trained the sights on me as he slowly walked closer. If I had a heart beat it would have quickened in fear. Had tracked me down to finally put an end to my freakish life? But what if he didn't hunt me down to kill me, what if we just happened across another, again? No, that seemed unlikely. When he got close enough to see that it really was me and that I wasn't chomping at the bit to eat him, he lowered his bow. "So you're real." He sighed as he shifted his weight to one foot and put his hand on his hip.

"I…am." My words still came out raspy but sounded less winded than the day before. I was glad that he would be able to understand me easier. Unfortunately, with my smoother voice came more pain. Today it felt as if I had swallowed a punch bowl full of glass chards where as the day before, talking just felt like an intense sore throat from a common cold.

"Damn, I was hopin' that I was just goin' insane." He spoke more to himself than me.

"How's…side?" I asked as I pointed to the bulky padding under his sleeveless shirt. He just pressed a hand to his side and waved me off. That's when I noticed the stitches on the side of his head. "What…happened?" I touched the side of my head then pointed to him to tell him what I was talking about.

"Got shot." he said and I felt my eyebrows rise. "They thought I was a walker yesterday." He said with a shrug before he leaned against the side of the house.

He didn't say anything for a minute or so, so I decided to break the silence. "Your n…name?" I asked with a look over my shoulder at him. I'd love to know his name. None of _us_ have names anymore. I walked by a walker once that had a nametag on, but I couldn't read it. The letters spun and reversed in my vision. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't still them long enough to read it.

So I waited patiently for his name. "Daryl." He said before he walked back around to stand in front of me. "You got a name?" he asked.

"Hh… huh…" I tried hoping that a name would come out of my mouth, like a muscle memory, but nothing happened. I had no memory to remind the muscles in my mouth what my name was.

"You name's Huh?" he asked.

I shake my head no. "Hhuu…"

"Huhh? Yer name starts with H?" he asked and I nodded. "Okay uh Holly?"

I furrow my brows and shook my head at his guess.

"Uh, Haley?"

I shook my head again.

"Heather, Helen, Hope?" he asked and each name got shot down. "Okay, why don't I just call ya H?" he asked and I nodded. At that moment I felt something I had never felt in my undead life. A strange sensation in my lips that pulled them upward. It's different… but I liked it and wanted to do it more. "So H, what are you doin' just sittin' here?" he asked and I didn't know how to tell him that I'm here because I thought this was my home.

I knew it was going to hurt like hell, but I had to try and talk more. From what I could tell the more I talk the better I am at it. So I said "Thought…this was…my home. Though… I'd remember, but…nothin'." OUCH! Son of a bitch. If I could scream, I would have. My throat was rebelling against me, but I had to keep talking. I couldn't let the undead in me win.

"So you thought this was your home?" he asked and I nodded. "I don't think this was ever anyone's home. Even before the turn." I just shrugged. "Well, that doesn't matter anymore and I have a question for you." I felt my eyebrows rise again and he shifted his weight to his other foot and put his hand on his hip. "I need you to help me look for someone. A little girl 'bout yay high. She has short brown hair and is wearing a blue shirt with a rainbow on it and kaki high waters. We lost her three days ago. Have you seen her?"

***Flashback***

Hungry. So hungry. I haven't eaten in days. It feels like my stomach is literally trying to eat itself. A herd just came through this part of the woods the day before and everything with a heart beat is hiding or already dead. I collapse on the ground in intense pain, my arms wrapped around my throbbing stomach. I think I'm going to die but then I remember that I'm already dead. I'm in hell then, I must be.

That's when the sickly sweet scent of a pink skin hits my nose and I bolt to life, unable to control my own body. I'm just like the others. Hungry, thoughtless and cruel. All I can think about is the taste of warm blood flowing over my teeth and into my dead throat. I don't just want flesh, I need it.

When I stop running it's because I've gotten my hands on the shoulder of a little girl whose back was turned to me. I didn't even think twice before I sank my teeth into her shoulder and ripped out a chunk of flesh and fabric. Warm sticky blood shot all over my face warming me to the core. The scream that pierced my ears was enough to make me realize what I had just done. I had failed. I had given myself one rule and I broke it, again. The little girl ran away before I could finish her. I tried to make it a point to not let the pink skins that became my food turn. Because one, it would mean one less horrible thing like me to threaten the living and two, I reveled in the eating of the brain just like any other walker does. It's horrible, but true.

**End Flashback**

"I've seen her." I hauntingly whispered as I stared out at nothing.

This confirmation seemed to make Daryl happy because he jumped in front of me and got right in my face. "How long ago? Where? Will you take me there?" the urgency that was on the man's face struck me as odd considering he didn't look like father material.

"She…yours?" I asked and his eyes immediately went to the ground.

He shook his head. "Na, just the daughter of a friend of mine." He paused for a second taking in the fact that my body language was more saddened than I normally looked. "Was she alive, where did you see her?" he asked in a slower manner with stern eyes that made me feel stupid and scared.

"A few miles that way… Three dd days ago… She was…alive. I'll…take you there… if you want…" The pain in my throat was growing more intense with every word I said. So I got up, ready to take him to the place that I last saw the little girl.

"Where are you goin'?" he asked with attitude tainting his voice.

"Take…" I pointed to him then pointed in the direction of the place that I last saw the little girl. "little girl." I said nonchalantly with a shrug of my shoulders. Without thinking about it I took a breath. My hand instantly covered my mouth and nose and I turned away from him. It was as if he was a warm apple pie left to cool on a window seal and I was the person standing outside that the cartoon scent tendrils were beckoning to me telling me to come hither, take a bite. I growled again forcing myself to stay put. I didn't hear anything behind me and I was sure he just turned and walked away, but I was proven wrong when I felt something soft and warm touch my back. I jumped around and came face to face with a warm squirrel that was still on the arrow he shot it with.

"Take it. I know you things eat animals. I've seen it." I didn't know what to think. Why is he not running when it's taking everything in me not to eat him?

I cautiously plucked if off with my ashy fingers and turn my back on him. I didn't want to eat in front of him, but I had to. Hopefully with my hunger sedated I could concentrate on taking him where he needed to go without falling prey to old habit and breathing even though my lungs no longer need the oxygen.

I decided that it would be best if I just nibbled on the warm meat as we walked. That way if I did breathe, I wouldn't smell him.

I guess he understood what I was doing, because he didn't try to look or ask questions. Like why I'm not eating him or why I can talk and the other's can't.

When we got to the last place that I saw her, the place where I bit her, I stopped and pointed. "Here?" he asked as he started walking around in the small circle of woods that was clear of trees. He started searching the ground with trained eyes. That's when I realized that this was a mistake, he would easily be able to spot the droplets of blood on the ground and know that she was hurt. Will he blame me? "There's blood on the ground. Was this here when she was here?" he asked and I could only shrug. It most likely was. I mean, I ripped a chunk of her shoulder out. So how could there not be blood on the ground?

All of a sudden he was in my face, no longer afraid that I would rip his flesh off. It was I who was afraid of him. His glaring blue eyes were so intense, dry lips drawn into a thin line and sweaty nostrils flared. I slowly started backing away as I stiffly held my hands up in surrender even though I thought that it would do no good. "Didn't kill her." I choked out but it only made his eyes burry deeper into my yellowed ones. I could see the debate going on in his head. He didn't know rather to scream, cry or kill me. I wouldn't doubt it if he did all of them starting with killing me.

Instead, he growled and pointed the knife that was in his hand at my eye. "Swear to god, if yer lyin' I'll jam this straight into yer fuckin' skull." He dropped the blade and started walking away, tracking the blood that was left on the ground. Without understanding why, I started following him. But I stopped in my tracks when he spun on his heal and glared at me. "Don't follow me." His words were cold, like he still didn't believe that I wasn't the one that killed the Sophia. It wasn't a lie. I didn't kill her, I just bit her. For all I knew more walkers found her and finished her off. They would be the ones that killed her, not me.

"Just…want…to help." I said into his glaring eyes wishing that I could glare back, but it's hard to glare with a dead, emotionless face. My guard momentarily dropped and I inhaled a small tendril of his scent. I couldn't hold in the growl that escaped me. So I reached into my pocket and grabbed the tail of the squirrel that I had eaten. The smell of it as I held it to my nose like a mask was enough to keep his smell from tempting me. When the urge to sink my teeth into him passed I placed the tail back into my pocket.

He had just stood there staring at me with an expression that seemed to say "Your weird."

"You smell….like…" what was a food that had a delicious scent? Something that smelled sweet and warm. I couldn't think of anything like that, that the living ate, so I simply finished with "yummy."

His face twisted in disgust. "Thanks I guess." It was sarcastic, but I overlooked it and nodded a your welcome at him. "I would say the same to you, but you smell ass." He fake gagged and I rolled my eyes, something I was doing a lot since I met him.

"Could come… in handy." He looked confused before what I was meaning clicked. "I'll…mask you." I grunted and he seemed to be thinking about my proposition.

"Fine, here's the deal," He started, taking a step closer to put his finger in my face, "you'll walk with me every day I come out here looking for her." I felt my lips do that thing again. The thing where the corners slowly pull upwards. "But you will not follow me to my camp, got it?" my lips fell with the harshness of his words. "We'll meet at the house, at dawn." He seemed to be thinking about if there was anything else he needed to put into the unwritten contract. "To keep ya from eatin' me, I'll get ya somethin' fresh every mornin'."

That was the end of it so I held out my hand. "Deal." I said and he stared at my graying skin, and bitten off fingernails. His lip curled in disgust. I expected him to just walk away, but he surprised me when he slammed his hand into mine, shook it once, then walked away.

"Deal." He grumbled as I started walking in behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** See Ch. 1.

**Ch.4: Heart Beat**

Daryl didn't say a thing as we walked along. He simply studied the ground, the trees and bushes. I knew that we would either eventually find the little girl as a walker, or laying on the ground somewhere with a hole through her head. It was fascinating to me, watching him track, taking in every little thing that surrounded him. I could tell by the way that he sometimes stopped and touched a tree or bush that he could tell something had disturbed it recently.

We were still walking, following the trail, when the sun started to set. Daryl simply stopped walking, turned to me and nodded his goodbye for now. He started to walk away when we heard a rustling in the leaves not far away. I made a lazy motion for him to get behind me and to my surprise, he did, without hesitating. The walker who seemed to be in hot pursuit seconds before came to a slow stop and sniffed of the air "Talk…" I grunted. It turned its head to the side almost like a confused dog, sniffed the air again then turned around to leave. That's when Daryl jumped out from behind me and jammed his knife into the back of the retreating walkers head.

His quick movements surprised me, but he didn't know it. How could he know when I had a dead face and body? The closest thing I have to an emotion is an eye roll and those couple of times when I think I may have smirked. "Ya mad?" he asked and I didn't understand why he was asking. So I shrugged.

"Why…be…Mad?" I asked ignoring the fact that my throat was getting worse.

"I keep killin' yer people." He explained shortly. "One less poxy bastard to eat the livin' if ya ask me.."

"Not…people." I said tucking my hand into my pant pocket, trying to act human. "Dead. I gave him… a chance… didn't…Take." I wheezed. With another shrug. "You…had t..to kill."

He nodded to me before he looked around and started to walk away.

He had gotten a few feet away before I spoke, making him turn to look at me. "I mask you…but not…enough…" he simply nodded and I was starting to realize that he was a man of few words. "Need more…" he just stared at me. "A…any ideas?" I asked.

I could tell he was thinking when he shifted his weight to one foot and placed his hand on his hip. "Yeah." He said after a while and started taking off his sleeveless flannel shirt. My eyes followed his movements as he tossed it over my shoulder. "Wear that tonight, get it smellin' nasty like you, then I'll wear it tomorrow."

The shirt should have felt warm against my cold dead skin. But the truth is that I cant feel hot or cold, I'm just here. But sticky sweet tendrils of his scent did waft up my nose even though I wasn't breathing. "Smells good." I sighed and without thinking about it. When I opened my eyes he was already heading back to his camp. "See… tomorrow." I called as loud as I could without killing my throat.

"Meet here at dawn." He called with a wave over his shoulder.

When he was gone I pulled his shirt off of my shoulder and attempted to put it on. It took a few minutes for me to get my dead arms into the arm holes, but I eventually did. It ended up hanging off of my small frame like a garbage bag. What made it worse was I couldn't button the buttons to get it to stay completely on me. So one side of the shirt hung off of my slender shoulder to rest near my elbow.

###Insert line###

After a long boring night of wandering and no eating, I went to where we had left off searching for the girl. Dawn came and went. No Daryl. I had promised him I would meet him here so I would, but eventually I got tired of standing so I sat down and leaned against the tree, momentarily becoming a lurker. Though I assumed that no one would stumble by me here.

I was just about to walk away, thinking that Daryl had decided to stop using me as his scent shield, when I heard a rustling in the leaves behind me. I turned to see a sweaty, aggravated looking Daryl. Like always his shirt was sleeveless and his crossbow was slung over his shoulder. I nodded in greeting back to him, not knowing how my voice would come out today. He took in the sight of his shirt hanging off of me and smirked before his face turned back to his normal flat expression. I started to take it off, but he stopped me. "Na, keep it." I felt my head tip showing my confusion as best I could. "We'll look for the girl later, right now I need ya to meet someone." Oh, crap. Who was he going to take me to, a scientist? Someone who wanted to pick apart my brain and figure out what makes me different?

I felt myself blink a few times and take a few steps backwards before I spoke for the first time that day. "Who?" the word came out smooth, and almost sounded normal. I smiled inside.

"The girl's mom. She's given up hope. Need ya to tell her that ya can help me find her, that ya've seen her." All happiness about my new voice fell and a pain that I had never felt before shot through I chest. Was it fear, hurt, or…what? How can I face the mother of the little girl that I bit and tell her that we were going to find her daughter? I couldn't. "She needs us."

I felt myself start shambling backwards from him. "I…can't." Something told me that if I could cry, that I would have.

"She ain't gonna finish ya off. I won't let her. Ya ain't gotta be scared of her." He misunderstood my hesitance. How could he? He didn't know I was the reason they were looking for this woman's daughter in the first place.

But it was his eyes, something in his squinted, blue eyes that made me agree to go with him even though I didn't want to. "Fine." I breathed and he nodded now looking hopeful.

He turned and waved for me to follow, so I did. Why was I doing this? There was only one way it could end. It would end with everyone heartbroken and me dead, for good.

He led me to a small lake with a pier, but he stopped me at the edge of the woods. "Wait here while I go get her, and don't come out until I say to." I just nodded before he walked off.

A few minutes later I saw them walking over to stand near the edge of the lake. "Do you see it?" he asked a skinny woman with short salt and pepper hair. Her clothes were dingy, then again who's wasn't these days? She asked him what he was pointing at. Before they got close to a bush of flowers like the ones he was looking at the day he found me. "We'll find her." I watched as they stood in silence for a few minutes, just looking at the white flowers. "Hell, I'm sorry about what happened this morning."

"You wanted to look for her." The woman's voice matched her small stature. "Why? This whole time I just wanted to ask you."

"Cause I think she's still out there." I could see her turn her head back to look at the pretty flowers and Daryl spoke again. "Truth is, what else I got to do."

I wished I could read the look on her face, but I couldn't. So I just watched her reach down and touch one of the flowers petals. "We'll find her. We will. I see it."

"Good, 'cause I have someone I want you to meet. Someone who's been helping me look for her." The woman looked confused, I knew that much, but there was another emotion on her face that I couldn't figure out. "Ya have to promise not to be scared of her." The woman opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and shook her head. "H, come on out here."

It was the first time he had actually called me H and something fluttered in my stomach. I tugged the sleeve of the shirt he had given me up onto my shoulder and stepped out of the trees. The woman's mouth fell open and she reached for the knife on her hip. I knew then that I needed to talk, to prove myself like I had with Daryl. "Hi. H…hello." I said with a stiff awkward wave. Her eyes got big as she looked quickly from me to Daryl then back to me. "I won't…hurt you." I said hoping my voice would be as smooth as it had earlier that evening, but it came out a bit raspy. "I… don't like…eating people." I managed to get it all out without stopping too much.

"What is she?" the woman asked with her mouth agape and I saw Daryl smirk out of the corner of my eye.

"Don't know, but she said she's seen Sophia." Daryl said to the open mouthed woman who couldn't stop staring at me where I was standing a safe distance away. "H, come here." Daryl waved me over and I stumbled closer to stand five feet away from the woman. "H this is Carol. Carol, H." he said with a smirk as he looked at Carol's still shocked face. "She helped me find Sophia trail again. Picked it up yesterday, followed it all day. I'm getting close, I know it."

I had never heard Daryl talk so much and I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. He was so hopeful. I didn't know what he was going to do when they found out what I had done. "Thank you." The woman's shaky words made me look at Carol to see her holding out her hand. I took it and gave her a nod as she shook it once, then dropped it. "Do the others know about her?" Carol asked and Daryl shook his head no. "I think they need to know. This changes everything. How do we know there aren't more like her?"

* * *

It was like I had no control over myself as I followed Daryl and Carol back to their camp. Bringing me back hadn't been an easy decision for them to make. Daryl argued that I might devour the whole camp, while Carol, of all people, decided that I wouldn't as long as I had the skin of a fresh animal to wear as a mask so that I wouldn't smell all of the people around me. When we got to the farm, I could see several people sitting around on the porch looking hot and bored.

When we got close enough for everyone to realize that I was a walker, people started jumping up and running over to kill me. "Whoa, hang on guys. She ain't dangerous."

An Asian man pushed a pretty young brunet woman behind him as if to protect her. "Daryl, I don't know what you see, but that's a walker. It's dangerous."

"Come on man, does it look like she trying to bite anyone right now?" Daryl asked, but the guy didn't have a chance to answer because another, more aggressive man, walked up with a bag of guns strapped over his shoulder.

"You with me man?" he guy asked Daryl as he handed him a gun, then his eyes landed on me and he started backing away. "What the hell?" he asked noticing how I was wearing Daryl's shirt and the skin of an animal over my nose.

"Not…going to h…hurt anyone." I finally spoke making people's mouths fall open.

"What the hell is this thang!?" the aggressive guy yelled making people come out of the house.

"What's goin' on out here?" an older man asked as he stalked out of the house taking in all the people standing in a scattered circle around Daryl and me. "Did you take her from my barn?" the old man asked and Daryl shook his head.

"No, she's a friend." Carol said as she stepped into the center of the circle with us. "She's different from the rest."

The aggressive guy scoffed making everyone look at him. "You got somethin' say asshole?" Daryl asked and the man started laughing.

"She's not a friend, Daryl. That bitch doesn't even have a pulse." The aggressive guy's eyes turned to another man who stood on the porch. He stood between a little boy and a tall skinny woman.

"Shane, just calm down a minute. She doesn't look like she's trying to eat anyone to me. Let's hear them out." The man had an authority to his voice that even I caught. And he was right. I wasn't trying to eat anyone, because I had the animal mask tied around my nose. I couldn't smell a thing.

The older man walked down off of the porch and made his way to stand in front of me. "Hershel, man, get the hell away from the thang." Shane said with an eye roll at the old man.

"See? This proves it. I told ya'll that these people were just sick. She's healing, look at her." Hershel said as he walked to sand at my side. I stood perfectly still, as the man examined me. I had opened my mouth to say something and it was in that moment that three shots rang out into the air. My body jerked with each one. Pain shot across my chest and stomach. I leaned forward and clutched my stomach. Black blood bubbled from the new wounds, coating my arms.

"These thing's are not sick! They're dead. Ain't got to feel nothing for them 'cause all they do is kill!" Shane started yelling and pacing around like a mad man. "These things right here. They're the things that killed Amy." He started passing out guns to everyone as he yelled. "They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us." Shane started heading over to the barn and everyone followed trying to stop him.

"Shane shut up." I heard someone yell, but I didn't pay attention to whom.

Shane stopped when he got to the door of the barn and started pacing in front of them. "A living breathing person couldn't walk away from that. But you know what they can't walk away from? This." Shane raised his gun and pointed it at my head. But he didn't have time to pull the trigger before Daryl knocked the gun out of his hand.

"Shane, enough!" the same person that yelled at him before, yelled at him again.

"You know what man that is enough." Shane said glaring at Daryl as he picked his gun up off of the ground. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Daryl held his place in front of me where I had moved to stand at the back of the group, far away from Shane. "Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough! Rick, it ain't like it was before!" Shane said looking at the man who had been telling him to shut up, and trying to talk him down. "Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it!" I just watched as the man continued to rant and rave. Then he ran over and broke the locks off of the barn, letting the walkers inside come shambling out.

I thought, for a split second about trying to hold back my fellow walkers, but that's when everyone started firing down, including Daryl. I had decided to leave and was slowly starting to back away. I was still moving backwards when things fell silent. "Sophia? Sophia!" Carol's screams for her daughter stopped me in my tracks. My feet felt like they were glued to the ground as I watched Daryl, who had momentarily forgotten about me, wrap his arms around Carol, stopping her from getting too close to her daughter.

_Th-thunk._ Ouch! What was that? Something moved inside my chest. _Th-thunk._ There it was again, and it hurt worse than being shot three times. I didn't have too much time to ponder the feeling, because that's when Rick started moving around people to get a clean shot at walker Sophia. The new feeling, mixed with the sounds of Carol's cries somehow gave me the adrenaline I needed to rush to Sophia and push her back into the barn. Rick's shot missed and hit the door. Everyone stood, in shock.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** See Ch.1

**Ch.5:**** Discoveries**

"S…ophia." I said as I stared into a set of small eyes that looked like mine. Most of us walkers had white, cloudy eyes or plain bloodshot ones. But Sophia and I, our eyes had a yellow milky quality to them that I had never seen before. This flicked the switch of my idea light bulb making it light up. Not vibrantly, like that of a fresh, new light bulb, but like that of a light bulb that was near flickering out. Since I am the one that changed Sophia, does that mean she will be like me? She sniffed the air, knowing that if I was talking that she should be able to eat me, but I didn't smell eatable, like a pink skin does. "Can you…u-nderstand me?" I asked. It may have just been my hopeful thoughts, but she looked like she was thinking.

She looked up, then down, then started walking away from me to wander the barn. I could hear Carol still crying outside, along with the crying of what sounded like a young girl. I didn't know what to do. Should I try to see if I could get Sophia to talk? Should I stay in the barn for not only my safety, but Sophia's as well? I was confused to say the least and the longer I stood in the barn watching Sophia wonder around, the more it felt like the animal skin mask that was on my face was tightening.

So I ripped it off and tossed it on the ground. Sophia caught scent of the fresh flesh that had been pressed against my nose, and she picked it up to start eating what was still good. As she ate, I looked down at myself. I had almost prided myself on how few wounds I'd had. Now there was a hole in my chest, just missing my heart, and two in my abdomen. Black blood blended with my faded tank top making it glisten and stick to my skin. But the first time I had been shot I didn't bleed. So why was I bleeding now? Could it have something to do with that pain in my chest earlier? I didn't even understand what that was.

All I knew was that I suddenly didn't want to be dirty anymore. I mean, I never liked having the blood of my prey on my face, but my own blood and the dirt that had accumulated on my skin over time never bothered me before. Now I just wanted it all gone. So I shucked off Daryl's shirt and managed to get my top over my head. I used the ripped and blood soaked thing to wipe at the blood that streaked my front. I could feel blood on my back, but couldn't reach it. I had thrown my old tank top on the ground and was attempting to button Daryl's shirt around myself when the barn door opened, just a crack.

"H, come 'ere." Daryl's voice floated to me and caused Sophia to grown and start stumbling toward him. So I did as he asked and staggered over to the door while trying to put his shirt on to cover myself. "Come on out." I slid out of the cracked door just before Sophia slammed into it. He noticed the missing animal mask and how I was attempting a change of wardrobe. He pulled the sleeves of his shirt up over my arms and did the top button to keep it in place. He also didn't miss that I kept wiping at the blood on my hands and arms. I could tell by the way his weight shifted from one foot to the other that he was thinking about something. He stayed quiet for so long that I started to wonder what he was thinking about. "Do you wanna shower?" his question took me off guard. "If yer gonna get people around here to give ya a chance, ya probably shouldn't smell like…you."

I couldn't believe it. He was offering me the chance to take a shower when it was the only thing I wanted at the time. "Would…love a sh, shower." I said feeling the corners of my mouth pull up again slightly. He waved his hand over his shoulder for me to follow him, so I did. "People… won't mind?" I asked as smoothly as my voice would allow.

"They're so distracted that they won't even notice." He answered and we made our way up the steps of the house.

"What about S…Sophia? She'll be… safe?" I asked and he just nodded, so I took it on faith that she would be okay in my absence.

"I'll scavenge you up some clothes." I hadn't even thought about that, but he led me to the bathroom and left me standing there alone. I didn't even remember how a shower worked. I just stood there staring at it, feeling stupid, until I decided to give it a try. I fiddled around for five or so minutes before I figured it out.

The water had no temperature to me, I never felt cold or warm, just…neutral. When steam started to fill the room I fiddled with the knobs until the steam went away. I had no way of knowing what bottle held shampoo, or conditioner or what bottle held the soap. I couldn't read. So I just grabbed a bottle of gel that created suds when I rubbed my hands together, and used it for everything. I was stumbling out of the shower when I heard a knock on the door. "It's me, brought ya some clothes." I was still soaking wet and wrapped in a towel when I opened the door. I don't know if it was because Daryl was looking at a half naked female walker or something else, but there was a concealed emotion dancing behind his squinted eyes that I couldn't make out.

"Thanks." I croaked, not because my voice was getting rough again, but because his gaze was becoming kind of intense.

He simply gave me a small nod before he turned his back on me and walked away. My eyes, for some reason, locked onto the red rag that dangled from his back pocket. When I could no longer see it, I went back into the bathroom to get dressed. After taking forever to put on a blue bra that somehow fit perfectly, I slipped a light pink tank top that was dotted with blue hearts over my head. I then donned a pair of panties and loose fitting jeans. I left the bathroom and made my way outside.

There was a small group of people out near the barn and they were all gathered around two graves. I knew, had I not kept Rick from shooting Sophia, that she too would be in the ground. I decided that they were far enough away that I could smell the air to see if Daryl and Carol where there, but I didn't get a chance to try, because Daryl came silently out of nowhere and tapped me on my shoulder.

"I'm movin' my things father away from everyone. It'd probably be best if ya stayed in the barn at night an guarded Sophia." I just watched his eyes as he spoke. I don't know if I was seeing things, or if I could really see the different emotions dancing behind his eyes as he spoke. "Ya never know when Shane will feel the need to pick off the both of ya. Better yet, I'll move my things in front of the barn, keep both of ya safe."

I didn't know what to say, so I just nodded. He was willing to go against his people to keep me and another walker safe. It didn't dawn on me until way later that even though Daryl didn't know that I had been the one to bite Sophia, he was inwardly, silently hoping she would turn out to be like me. But I knew we needed his protection either way, what with all the people around whose nerves were on edge and were seeking a way of coping. So I helped him move his cot in front of the barn doors and just watched as he kicked the ladder that led to the hayloft until it fell to the ground. He picked it up and put it between the doors, and where he started setting up his tent.

###Insert Line###

I was inside the barn, watching Sophia wander around, mindlessly dragging her feet. Sometimes the hay gathered on the toe of her shoe until she stumbled and fell. But in a few seconds she would shamble back up and keep going. It was in this moment that Sophia had fallen for the tenth time that I heard and smelled Lori outside. "You guarding the walkers?" I heard no reply from Daryl. "Whatever, listen, Beth's in some kind of catatonic shock. We need Hershel."

"Yeah, so what?" he asked as if he didn't care.

"So I need you to run into town real quick and bring him and Rick back." Silence. Nothing but silence and the scraping of a knife against wood. "Daryl…" her voice was so pleading.

"Your bitch went window shopping. You want him? Fetch him yourself. I got better things to do." There was something hard in his voice now. Something had changed about him since they found Sophia the way they did. And I couldn't tell what it meant.

"What is the matter with you? Why would you be so selfish?"

"Selfish? Listen to me Olive Oyl. I was out there looking for that little girl every single day. I took a bullet and an arrow in the process. So don't you tell me about me getting my hands dirty!" Things were getting heated now, at least in Daryl's part. And he was right; he made friends, if you want to call it that, with a walker to help his people find a little girl. And she had the nerve to call him selfish? "You want those two idiots? Have a nice ride! I'm done looking for people." I knew the conversation was over when the scraping of metal against wood picked back up and I turned my attention back to the wandering Sophia.

Hearing Daryl and Lori's conversation then seeing Sophia stumble again and let out a low growl made me realize that I needed to be focusing on her, on my own kind. In a way, since I was the one that turned her and I had never stuck around to see any of the very few that I had turned, I felt a kinship with her. I needed to get her talking, or at least acknowledging words soon or else I feared she would be killed. When or if that time came, I knew wouldn't be able to stop it.

"Sophia…" I drawled her name making her look my way. I doubted it was because she heard her name. She simply looked because she heard something. "Sophia… your name is…Sophia." She tilted her head jerkily from side to side like a confused puppy, as if trying to understand what I was saying. I pointed a finger at the young girl, "Sophia" then pointed at myself "H". Her mouth moved as if to pronounce something and I leaned up to hear her better. But my hopes fell when she closed her mouth and kept walking. I sighed. I was beginning to wonder if I was wrong to save her from being killed like the rest, but that's when I heard it. The sound of a hiss that I didn't know where it came from.

"Sssss…" I looked around me wondering if a snake had found its way into the barn. "Ssssoooffff." That's when I realized that the noise was coming from Sophia. Something in my chest leaped at the sound of her talking and I jumped up faster than I thought I could.

"D-aryl. Daryl!" I yelled getting him to open the door and peek in. "She's trying… to talk."

"What'da mean she's tryin' to talk?" he asked and my lips did that thing again where the corners pulled upwards.

I was smiling, not full on, but close enough. "She tried to say… her name, I… I knew she would be able… to talk." I said looking from him to the little girl that was starting to stumble to Daryl. What I now understood to be excitement was shooting though my body like streaks of ice.

"How did you know she'd be able to talk?" Daryl asked me, looking more outraged than I had ever seen him. All of a sudden it felt like my cold heart fell to my feet, the excitement faded and my whole stature sank. How was I supposed to explain without telling him that I'm the one that bit and changed her?

"Her…eyes." I grunted and he looked at me like he didn't know what I was talking about. "Come…See." I waved over my shoulder and tried to open the door to the barn, but he pulled it open before I could. When Sophia smelled Daryl and tried to make a run for him I grabbed her around her shoulders and held her tight so that she couldn't scratch or bite him. "Her eyes are like mine." I opened my eyes wider and watched as he leaned closer to my face looking at my eyes then he kneeled down and looked at Sophia's.

"Well, I be damned." He spoke under his breath as he stood up.


End file.
